1. Freestone
2. Price
3. Howard #
4. Todd
5. Bound
6. Romo @
7. Cusack
8. Lacey
9. Verschave
10. Fabiano
11. Watkin

    ---

12. Jones J
13. Roberts @ 78
14. Jenkins # 78
15. Phillips
16. Boyd

 Northampton Town

1. Welch
2. Whitley
3. Frain
4. Sampson
5. Savage
6. Howard
7. Hunt
8. Hope
9. Hargreaves
10. Gabbiadini
11. Forrester

    ---

12. Ferguson
13. Hodge
14. Sollitt
15. Morrow
16. Green

A rather depleted Builders attendance and a reported empty Potter Wheel indicated that the crowd was going to be low. With both Phil Sumbler and Dai Smith away on business, the Builders takings for Saturday afternoon were certainly down.

Upon arriving at the ground at 2:55pm, I found there was more room than usual on the North Bank but the fact that the East Stand looked fuller than usual meant the crowd almost reached the 5000 mark – only 89 short.

There was a minute's silence observed for ex-Swansea and Man Utd player Colin Webster who passed away earlier thios week.

Hollins at last put his money where his mouth is by using players from his squad instead of making 4 or 5 experienced players play out of position to cover for injuries. Chris Todd, an ex-YTS trainee was handed his home league debut alongside Matt Bound in the heart of the defence. No doubt Hollins must have considered his only pre-season signing Andrew Mumford (ex-Llanelli), but his involvement with a loan spell at Port Talbot, must have complicated things.

There was apprehension amongst the fans about throwing a young buck in against such distinguished strikers as Gabbiadini and Forrester not to mention the man mountain that was Howard – but as it turned out, Todd gave an excellent account of himself. Bound too was more comfortable in a sweeping role content to leave Todd attack the ball each time it was pumped at them.

On more than one occasion he knocked our own midfielders out of the way as he claimed headers for himself. This directness in the back and just a little further forward was a welcome sight.

The boo-free zone was almost a success had it not been for a certain Mr Frain playing for Northamton – but apart from him being barracked every time he got the ball, there was little evidence of the fans having a go at their own players.

Mr Parkes, one of the few black referees in the FL, was amiss in not awarding a penalty to the Cobblers in the first few minutes when Mike Howard was late with a sliding tackle in the box.

From Swansea's first corner, Todd rose well and headed goalwards, but Frain on the post chested the ball clear.

In line with most of the other matches at the Vetch this year, the linesmen on both sides appeared to only be there to add symmetry to the proceedings. Forrester was played through on goal when he looked 3 or 4 yards offside but his shot past the advancing Freestone came back off the post – justice was done.

For periods the game reverted to the usual midfield game of head tennis despite the conditions being perfect for playing it on the ground.

One bright move however soon had the crowd animated. Watkin's lay-off to Cusack in midfield was accurately played along the ground for Verschave to outrun their back line and latch onto. He had a clear run into the area with only keeper Welch to beat – but he fired wide from just 12 yards out. This has been typical of what I've seen of Verschave – good approach work, but no composure when it comes to finishing.

With the game limping to a stalemate at half time, Northampton were fortuitously awarded a corner, We had already played 2 minutes of added time so was the Cobbler jinx going to repeat itself? Sadly the answer was yes – but we contributed to the disaster ourselves. As the ball came over from the corner, Freestone half came and stopped and the man-mountain appeared unchallenged on the penalty spot to power home a header off the underside of the bar.

As soon as we kicked off the whistle went, but there were no half time boos for the team to walk off to.

HT 0-1

Swans had their best spell of the game for the first 20 minutes of the second half and the industry was being matched with equal measures of skill. One particular move that caught my eye involved the 3 frenchmen. Some really slick inter-passing between Fabiano and Romo led to Verschave being played through but his shot was deflected for a corner.

With 53 minutes gone and pressure mounting on the Northampton Area, a Fabiano cross found Watkin with time to control and shoot, but his shot hit the post. Fortunately for us it was the inside of the post and the spin of the ball took it along and over the line.

The previously subdued Jack Army found their voices and the atmosphere was electric, The Swans responded to this and Northampton were penned in their own area for long periods.

This was the time to go for the jugular – one point was not going to be enough for us. Would Hollins see that the introduction of Roberts may add to the mayhem Northampton were experiencing? The answer sadly was NO.

Northampton weathered the storm and even threatened themselves as the game settled into a 10 minute period of what I'd call a fatigue break.

With just 10 minutes to go Hollins eventually brought on Roberts for Romo and Jenkins for Howard who looked to have pulled a muscle minutes earlier.

Swansea had more of the last 10 minutes than their opponents but both sides had opportunities with late corners at either end.

Last year's corresponding fixture saw Northampton win on points but lose 4-1, this year it was Swansea's turn to feel hard done by. What goes around comes around.

Summary: A gritty performance matched with skill but we lack the ability to change the game plan to our advantage – something that has been evident for few years.

Player ratings:
Freestone 6 - at fault for their goal but did make some good saves
Price 6 - didn't get forward too much today
Howard 7 – solid performance apart from the rush of blood in the first minutes
Bound 7 – very comfortable with Todd playing the pro-active role
Todd – 8 a very promising debut. If he can maintain this performance with less adrenalin in his body, we will be on to another winner here
Fabiano 7 – impressive and busy – gets stuck in too. Tired late on understandably

Romo 7 – one of his better games today – good linking with his countrymen in particular
Lacey 6 – disappointing but did come stronger in the 2nd haf
Cusack 7 – a little off the pace in open play but played some good balls through on goal
Verschave 7 – ran and ran but needs to work at finishing when put in good positions
Watkin 7 – worked tirelessly – statistically probably received the ball the most.

Subs:
Roberts & Jenkins – not enough time to make an impact.

We arrived at the Vetch yesterday with renewned optimism after the excellent midweek win at Stoke. There were alarming gaps on the North Bank where we usually stand which only underlines how unhappy many fans are with our current position. Giovanni Savarese was still sidelined after his recent concussion so Steve Watkin partnered Vershave up front. Jason Smith failed to recover from his ankle injury so young Chris Todd came in for his league debut.

Northampton started the livelier side and we unlucky not to go ahead in the second minute when the diminutive Jamie Forrester hit a post after the Swans' defence was exposed on the right flank. The next goalmouth incident was at the other end when Vershave found himself with a classic one-on-one with the Northampton 'keeper but could only blaze wide with the goal at his mercy.

With the 'Three Musketeers' of Vershave Romo, and the impressive Fabiano linking well on the bobbly Vetch pitch and young Todd performing superbly at the back, expectations were high and a Swans goal looked likely. However, on the stroke of half-time it was the visitors who took the lead when an inswinging corner from the right was headed home off the bar by an unmarked Northampton player.

The usual half-time debate at the back of the North Bank (which included our very own Gary Martin) was of gloom and doom but tentative plans to travel to Swindon next week were still being made.

The start of the second half saw the Swans looking the more threatening and the equaliser duly came in the 53rd minute when the excellent Steve Watkin turned and fired home, much to the relief of the Vetch faithful. However, the Swans again failed to capitalise on this and strike while the iron was hot.

As the second half wore on, so did the obvious requirement to change things round. With Romo and Vershave looking quite jaded by now, all eyes turned to the bench. Most of the Swans substitutes were warming up (as they had done for most of the second half) and only the red-booted, shivering figure of Walter Boyd could be spotted. Stuart Roberts was then stripped by Hollins but the substitution wasn't made. The North Bank chanted for 'Super Stu', season ticket holders in the Centre Stand politely implored Hollins to make the change ("Get him on, Hollins!") and it appeared that even Romo was lipread to say "Mon dieu, Monsieur Hollins".

A double change was eventually made in the 75th minute with Stu on for Romo and Lee Jenkins replacing Frankie Howard (was he injured?). However, to be fair to the lads coming on, it was too late to make any real impact, and so it proved.

PLAYER RATINGS
ROGER FREESTONE: Didn't really have that much to do, though was he at fault for the goal?; 7/10
JASON PRICE: Played out of position at right-back. Still struggling after he publicly claimed: "I can play at a higher level than this"; 6/10
FRANKIE HOWARD: Another solid match at left-back. Possibly injured late in the game; 7/10
MATTHEW BOUND: Still to recapture his excellent form of last season; 6/10
CHRIS TODD: A remarkably mature performance on his league debut. Superb in the air, composed on the deck and unruffled. Give the lad an extended contract; 9/10
DAMIEN LACEY: I can't believe that poor Damien is given the nod before Martin Thomas. Out of his depth; 4/10
NICK CUSACK: Covered every blade of grass on the pitch. I feel much more confident when he is in the side; 8/10
DAVID ROMO: Pretty on the ball and great feet, though is this what we want to fight a Division 2 relegation dogfight? I think not; 5/10
FABIANO: A Division 1 version of Romo. Slowly settling into the Swans' pattern of play; 7/10
VERSHAVE: Very busy yesterday but failed to really penetrate. Should have put the Swans in front in the first half; 6/10
STEVE WATKIN: I may be one of his biggest critics but he played yesterday as if he's been reading postings to this list. He battled, chased, held the ball up and took his goal well. If only he did that every week; 8/10
SUBSTITUTES
STU ROBERTS & LEE JENKINS: Not on the pitch long enough to make enough of an impact or warrant a rating.

VERDICT

We obviously missed Savarese yesterday but, again, it is Hollins' decisions that STILL aren't helping our cause. We played 4-4-2 with four central midfielders of similar talent AGAIN. There was no out-and-out winger and no terrier. For me, the main plus point to emerge from the afternoon's proceedings was the performance of Chris Todd.